And The Oscar For Best Picture Of The Year Goes To...

The Academy Awards will be celebrating its 95th anniversary this coming year.

I was just looking at a list of all the Best Picture winners over the years as I was curious how many of them I had actually seen and could recall in some detail.

From 'Wings' in 1928 which I have seen to 'Coda' from 2021 which I have not seen, I have viewed 65 of the 93 Best Picture Oscar winners.

Most of the ones not seen are from the late 20s and 30s and, perhaps not surprisingly, a bunch from the last 15 years or so.

Was also looking at the other films nominated to see how they stacked up against the selected winner.
Sometimes it seemed the best picture was indeed the Best Picture. Other times not the case.

 

I refuse to watch the Best Picture of 1958 -- because it's my birth year. Of all the amazing works in the history of the cinema, I have to be born the year "GIGI" wins. Brrrr. I guess it could have been worse, some poor kind was born in the year of "The Shape of Water."



Best Picture: "The Shape of Water". hahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhaha.

That was the last year I watched the Academy Awards.

 

Let’s be controversial….in the spirit of things.

The year with the best two movies, either of which would have been a deserved winner ?

1974. The Godfather Part 2, and Chinatown.

 

Coda is a great film

 

It depends. Some great films have won and some stinkers. I’ve seen about 60 of them.

Lots of great movies have had the honor:
Casablanca
The Best Years of Our Lives
On The Waterfront
Ben-Hur
The Apartment
Unforgiven
Platoon
Silence of The Lambs
No Country For Old Men
Patton
Moonlight
Shape of Water
Parasite
Etc, most winners fall in this category

Fine but not totally deserving (IMO):
Coda
Green Book
The Hurt Locker
Shakespeare In Love
Million Dollar Baby
Forrest Gump
Driving Ms Daisy

Not really deserving:
Crash
Out of Africa
Tom Jones
The King’s Speech
The Greatest Show On Earth

 

I've seen 41 of them, went over to look at the list on Wikipedia

Most recent winner I've seen was Million Dollar Baby.
I prefer much older movies than anything modern.

 

I liked it well enough but Best Picture?

 

I love Parasite and was thrilled when it won Best Picture (I've been a fan of Korean cinema since the late 90s, and it still blows my mind that one of those great directors won an Oscar). But it does open a Pandora's box. Simply put, every year, there are many great foreign films that have been ignored by the Academy. If we are really theoretically including all of those as possible nominees each year, the awards IMO become too unwieldy. The alternative is to ignore them again, in which case you call into question the legitimacy of the award. What to do?

I tend to agree with director Bong Joon Ho's comment that the Oscars are 'very local'. I think they should be. IMO the big issue with the Oscars these days is that the winners tend to be small films few have seen; hence, the general public doesn't care about the awards. Just look at the 70s: most of the nominees were huge films that everyone knew and saw. Nowadays you get one obscure film after another. And they tend to be released (only in LA and NY) at the end of the year, so even if the films might be popular given a chance, people don't know them because they have not been released in most of the country yet.

I'm not sure how to fix it exactly, but I feel that embracing the idea of the Oscars being mostly American mainstream films (and the indie awards can be given in the other event that happens the previous day) seems the way to go, if they can figure out how to phrase it. Perhaps forcing a movie to be generally released at least three months before the end of the year might be a good first step?

 

I've seen 44, so less than half. Oldest one I've seen is It Happened One Night. I've seen most of them for the last 20 years or so. Haven't seen Coda yet. I'm guessing whatever will win this year hasn't come out yet.

 

Don't know if you like war movies but a good and early Oscar Best Picture winner is ' All Quiet On The Western Front'

There is also a good, new remake of it just released on Netflix.

 

Obviously the only option is to start...and don't so much as apologize for the past, but perhaps a new "Academy Legacy" series of recognition for films that should have gotten fairer attention.
I know, this is like the revisionism of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Wenner, but the only way to start somewhere...is to start.
Recognizing the flaws of past awards that went to less-deserving candidates doesn't have to invalidate the process, if you're doing your best to make it better in the future.

Then you can put up with all the "Oscars That Never Got Oscared" brickbats all you want.
Or maybe...call it the "Faye"...after Ms. Dunaway...

 

A nice companion piece, it only goes up to 1991 though, for this thread…

https://www.amazon.com/Alternate-Oscars-Danny-Peary/dp/0385303327/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=14KS9AH4KKS47&keywords=alternate+oscars&qid=1667078376&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ==&sprefix=alternate+oscars,aps,83&sr=8-2

 

I've only seen 31 winners with about half I liked and half I didn't like or are indifferent towards. Like Shakespeare in love, Argo, The shape of water, Casablanca, Marty, The king's speech, all fine movies but not exactly best picture winner in my mind.

And of course there are films like Slumdog millionaire, The departed and No country for old men which I've never liked. Not to mention older films like Oliver, Gone with the wind or Ben Hur, movies I just don't see the greatness in.

But then there are some movies I'm ecstatic won. Like Forrest Gump, Titanic, Million dollar baby, Crash, Green book, All quiet on the western front, The return of the king, all excellent films that deservedly won best picture in my mind.

 

77:
Best Picture

• Rocky. Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, Producers.
• All the President's Men. Walter Coblenz, Producer.
• Bound for Glory. Robert F. Blumofe and Harold Leventhal, Producers.
• Network. Howard Gottfried, Producer.
• Taxi Driver. Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips, Producers.
  
  
  and 76:
  Best Picture
  • One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas, Producers.
  • Barry Lyndon. Stanley Kubrick, Producer.
  • Dog Day Afternoon. Martin Bregman and Martin Elfand, Producers.
  • Jaws. Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown, Producers.
  • Nashville. Robert Altman, Producer.
    
    
    and 75:
  Best Picture
  • The Godfather Part II. Francis Ford Coppola, Producer; Gray Frederickson and Fred Roos, Co-Producers.
  • Chinatown. Robert Evans, Producer.
  • The Conversation. Francis Ford Coppola, Producer; Fred Roos, Co-Producer.
  • Lenny. Marvin Worth, Producer.
  • The Towering Inferno. Irwin Allen, Producer.
    
    
    
    
  • Damn.
    

 

A very good remake. I watched it this afternoon and am still processing a few of the heavier moments that were unflinchingly depicted. Not for the squeamish, but then again, neither is the subject matter.

 

1975, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and Jaws

1994, Forest Gump, Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption

 

I'll tell you this: the best picture wasn't The Sting... and yet that one took home the statue.

If you mean 1975 (they consider the year the Oscar was actually handed out), Towering Inferno, Godfather II, Lenny, The Conversation, and Chinatown were all nominated. I'm kind of stunned that a movie as bad as Towering Inferno could even get nominated.

 

They threw a bone to Towering Inferno because of the all star cast of Newman, McQueen and Holden, plus various other celebrities

 

Those bloated, star-stuffed disasters films were so cheesy. Only the Poseidon semi-survives (still cheesy) because of the great set up. "Earthquake" another major stinker.

 

Normally, you would think "What movie could beat a classic like "Chinatown!"

And then the GF II stops you in your tracks. "Well, yeah..."

 

You do not the like the 3rd sequel from the Creature From The Black Lagoon franchise ?? I loved it , but I love the 1st 3 films

 

Del Toro only got it because he was the hot property and had a zillion other projects going at the time. It was at the peak of his wunderkind. It was four years before he directed another movie... without much fanfare (Nightmare Alley=Flop). It all coming off of the masterpiece known as "Pacific Rim" -- if you haven't seen it, the film is about Transformers powered by human gerbils with family problem.

 

Even then , you needed the blockbuster , for better TV ratings

 

Thought it is pretty good , though 81% is a bit weak for this type of film

Nightmare Alley

 

WINNER
THE STING
Tony Bill, Michael Phillips and Julia Phillips, Producers

NOMINEES
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
Francis Ford Coppola, Producer; Gary Kurtz, Co-Producer
CRIES AND WHISPERS
Ingmar Bergman, Producer
THE EXORCIST
William Peter Blatty, Producer
A TOUCH OF CLASS
Melvin Frank, Producer

Eeeh. I still give it to "The Sting."

The Exorcist would probably be my "sentimental" favorite (LOL) but no chance IN HELL!!!! I never felt anything for American Graffitti.